January 2015
Greetings and Happy New Year from Negros Island!
It was a very fast and furious time during the holiday season, here in the Philippines.
The Island of Negros was the host of an annual youth event called YACC! This was the 41st year for the event. Each year, it moves to a different island location or province. In 2014, it was hosted by the churches on Negros and was held on a large public school campus. Over 70 churches participated and the attendance was almost 800 people. Most of those attending are High School and College youth. There was great times of worship, preaching, games and fellowship for four days. A typhoon came through the last day of the event so many were stranded while traveling home because of the closing of all sea travel. Praise God for the impact of YACC on many young lives for Christ!
Three churches were constructed in 2014. Two of these on Panay Island were totally rebuilt with help from IDES and VFM. The third church at Tayasan, Negros Oriental, bought land, built a classroom, parsonage and a nice new chapel. This church had their building dedication service the last Sunday of December and 19 people made decisions at that service. In 2014, this church had 64 baptisms. Many of those have been enrolled in the TEE discipleship program. We are very thankful for the leadership of Abel and Nida Lobos. This church was a mission project of Christ Church of Yukon, Oklahoma.
Two churches had major remodeling and two preschool buildings were helped with construction in 2014. Land was bought at three church locations in 2014. A new church building has currently started at Balasan, Panay. The first Balasan church building was totally destroyed by the big typhoon Yolanda. It was very difficult to find land for their new building.
We rejoice that God gave us 6 young men to be trained at the new two year Visayas School of Leadership. These students are involved in Kid’s for Christ International, a children’s outreach ministry at seven different churches each month. This is a special one hour program for children which incorporates songs, puppets, games, memory verses, and Bible stories. The VSL students do scholarship work each day in the garden area and they have begun to preach on the weekends. Thanks for your prayers for the new VSL students as we complete our first year this March. Thanks to those supporting a student at $50 a month.
As 2015 begins, we are busy preparing VBS lessons for the churches of the central Philippines. We hope to not just provide VBS materials, but to also encourage churches to have a “Kids for Christ” church ministry to reach more children and families in this New Year.
On a personal note, we received information Sunday from Mary’s sister, Sharon Boyd, that her cancer of 2 years, is now untreatable and hospice will be providing her future care. Please keep Sharon and her husband in your prayers and also Mary as she is greatly concerned for her sister. She may need to travel back to Montrose, Colorado to visit her sister before our planned furlough in April if needed.
We are excited to be involved in the ministry here for Christ on Negros and the other islands of the central Philippines. Keep us in your prayers as we travel and visit churches and workers as we help, speak, and encourage one another. Mary is also excited to have 10 new “kids” born last week for our goat livelihood project. Life is exciting here in the service of the Lord!
In His service,
Paul and Mary Wilson
